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Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Jammer Relay Race

Objective: To give the derby muscles (aka quads) a good workout; to practice passing the star

Typical length of drill: 10 mins

Materials needed: A full track or just four cones to mark the inside track line

Skill level required: None

Description: This drill pins the skaters against each other in a race around the track, one skater and one lap at a time, while all of the skaters' teammates are holding a squat.

First, set up two cones next to the track -- they should be about 5 feet apart and about 5 feet from the track to avoid any skaters running into each other as they enter and exit the track. I usually set up the cones between turns 3 and 4 because most practice spaces I've been in have allowed for more leeway on the outside of the turns than the outside of the straightaways. Then split the skaters into two equal-sized teams (if one team has one more skater than the other team, make sure you tell the team skating one player short that the first person will have to skate twice). Have each team line up behind one of the cones and give the first person in each line a jammer panty with which to cover their helmets. On the whistle the first person in each line should immediately take off and race each other around the track for one lap, and all the skaters left in the lines should immediately pop down into squat positions. Once a racing skater has completed her/his one lap and s/he comes back to the cone, s/he hands off the jammer panty to the next person in line and then skates to the back of the line and assumes the squat position. The new "jammer" now races someone from the other team around the track and once s/he's completed her/his one lap s/he hands off the jammer panty to the next person on her/his team and gets back into line to squat. The relay race continues like this until all skaters on the team have sprinted one lap around the track, and only then are the skaters allowed to get up out of their squat. The winning team gets to un-squat sooner so there's the reason to push hard in the race. Usually I repeat this game three times in a row, with about a 60-second reset time in-between each game (I allow the teams to strategically rearrange their skaters during that time if they want to), and finally the team that lost the most games does 10 or 15 push-ups as "punishment" (and sometimes the winning team wants to do 10-15 sympathy push-ups together with the losers, which I think is pretty damn cool!).

Note: I usually tell the skaters that they do not have to wait until the jammer panty is completely covering their helmet, that they are allowed to begin skating as soon as they are in the process of placing the jammer panty onto their helmets. No one is allowed to skate with the panty in just their hand.

Additional notes: This is one of my favorite drills ever! Doing this at practice usually lifts everyone's spirits because everyone is always cheering for each other and skaters even forget that they are in pain from squatting because they are so excited about the racing. It's a really simple drill that doesn't require much skill or many materials, but it's an effective muscle workout and it's great at lightening the mood at practice. I'm proud of this one!